Food for Life – And Strong Drink is Raging

Sweet April Showers do bring May flowers. —Tusser

So be patient with the elements! God has His own way of perfecting everything according to His will. Even our bodies— if we live according to His plan and design for our lives—will be healthful and beautiful as long as we serve Him and do His will and do the tasks He has given us to perform.

“Some who are never considered really drunk, are always under the influence of mild intoxicants. They are feverish, unstable in mind, unbalanced. Imagining themselves secure, they go on and on, until every barrier is broken down, every principle sacrificed. The strongest resolutions are undermined, the highest considerations are not sufficient to keep the debased appetite under the control of reason.”

“The Bible nowhere sanctions the use of intoxicating wine. The wine that Christ made from water at the marriage feast of Cana was the pure juice of the grape. This is the ‘new wine found in the cluster,’ of which the Scripture says, ‘Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it.’” Isaiah 65:8.

“It was Christ, Who, in the Old Testament, gave the warning to Israel, ‘Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.’ Proverbs 20:1. He Himself provided no such beverage. Satan tempts men to indulgence that will becloud reason and benumb the spiritual perceptions, but Christ teaches us to bring the lower nature into subjection. He never places before men that which would be a temptation. His whole life was an example of self-denial. It was to break the power of appetite that in the forty days fast in the wilderness He suffered in our behalf the severest test that humanity could endure. It was Christ who directed that John the Baptist should drink neither wine nor strong drink. It was He who enjoined similar abstinence upon the wife of Manoah. Christ did not contradict His own teaching. The unfermented wine that He provided for the wedding guests was a wholesome and refreshing drink. This is the wine that was used by our Saviour and His disciples in the first Communion. It is the wine that should always be used on the Communion table as a symbol of the Saviour’s blood. The sacramental service is designed to be soul-refreshing and life-giving. There is to be connected with it nothing that could minister to evil.

“In the light of what the Scriptures, nature, and reason teach concerning the use of intoxicants, how can Christians engage in the raising of hops for beer making, or in the manufacture of wine or cider for the market? If they love their neighbor as themselves, how can they help to place in his way that which will be a snare to him?” The Ministry of Healing, 333, 334.

This weekend I was rereading a little book that has meant a great deal to me through the years, and in it I read a statement that I cannot imagine not noticing before! “God, in counsel with His Son, formed the plan of creating man in His own image. Man was to be placed upon probation. He was to be tested and proved; if he should bear the test of God, and remain loyal and true through the first trial, he was not to be beset with continual temptations, but was to be exalted equal with the angels and made, thenceforth, immortal.” E. G. White, Confrontation, 10.

What a statement! What sad consequences to Eve’s departure from God’s express commands, and what a fearful doom has resulted for the inhabitants of this old earth as a result.

Recipe – Baked Nut Rice (A favorite recipe of Ellen G. White)

Combine:

2 cups cooked brown rice

1 cup peanut butter

4 tablespoons finely chopped onion

1 teaspoon sage

sea salt to taste

The mixture should be thin-baked at 400º for 20-30 minutes. Delicious to fill baked green peppers.